Close Hatches Upsets the Mother Goose

The was no fairy tale
ending for Dreaming of Julia in the Mother Goose at Belmont Park. Sent off
at 1-5, the Stonestreet Farms filly struggled throughout the race. She did
manage to lug up for second place, 7¼ lengths behind the winner Close Hatches,
saving the $689,000 that was bet to show by the bridge jumpers.

Close Hatches was given a perfect ride by Joel Rosario. She sat patiently in fourth
place for the first half-mile of the race. In the next quarter of a mile,
Rosario asked the Juddmonte Farms filly to run and she jumped to a 1½ length
lead. Trainer Bill Mottdescribed
the move, “By the time we got to the middle of
the turn, it looked like we got first run on [Dreaming of Julia]. At the
three-eighths pole, we were breezing to the lead. It looked pretty good from
here.”

This was the second win in
the Mother Goose for Mott. He had previously won the race with Ajina in 1997.

Dreaming of Julia’s
trainer Todd Pletcher was obviously disappointed with the result, “She was never herself, it
didn’t look like. I don’t know if she was kind of stuck in between horses,
never really found a seam. I thought she ran very gutsy to get up for second
when clearly she didn’t run her race.”

Close Hatches entered the
Mother Goose with three wins and a second place out of five career starts. She
won her first three races including the Gazelle (G2). Then came a very
disappointing seventh place finish in the Kentucky Oaks. When Mott was asked if
he had figured out what happened in that race, he hesitated for a while and
jokingly said, “Sh*t happens, I guess. I mean she had a dull day.”

Close Hatches who was the 4.3-1
second betting choice, paid $10.60 to win. The mile and a sixteenth race, which
is contested around one turn, went in :23.32, :46.27, 1:09.98, 1:34.92, with a
final time of 1:41.36.

Mott talked about what
might be next for his filly, “Now, she’s got the
Grade 1. There’s no gun at our head to do anything. We’ll wait until she’s
ready again. Right now, we’ll try to keep her with her own age group, I
suppose. [The Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks on July 20 at Saratoga Race
Course] is something to consider. If she’s doing as well as she was going into
today, we’ll have to give it strong consideration.”

With the win in the Mother
Goose, Close Hatches got her first grade one victory and became the fifth
different grade one winner in the deep three year-old filly division. Mott did say
that with the division so wide open that it would probably take a good showing
against older horses to win the championship.

Dreaming of Julia left her performance in the paddock ... she was fraccious, she reared into another horse, they had to have the lead pony in front of her paddock stall to calm her down. Heading into the tunnel she was acting up... She never had a chance of winning this race adter her paddock antics

i know the posts that will follow.you are full of it,you think you are the smarest one here.so get it off your chests.go crazy.now to my point.you are all wondering what happened to julia.did you ever once consider, that the infamous florida oaks that made most of you fall in love with her was really a terrible moment. at the time ,i posted that she got the fastest thorograph sheet speed number ever given to any racehorse. maybe that effort just sapped her.sheis not a machine.that is why she was so flat in the oaks and in the mother goose.that was an incredible effort. do you want more proof.look at her trainers past performance with horses running hole in the wind speed figures. look at violate,look at graydar. i forgot his name,starts with a "Z". he ran a monster first out in march.everyone thought he was the 2nd coming.where are all of these horses.they are done ,retired. contrary to your thoughts of me.i never doubted julias talents. i use the same concept when i play all races.i love it when they have monster efforts and come back.they are never the same.that was my issue with orb.everyone said he was flat in the belmont.do you think.when is it the right thing to do to a young 3yo when you run him 3 times in 5 weeks.so folks ,plase stop scratching your heads looking for answers.this one just might unfortunately go the same route as the other speed freaks.it would not shock me ,if the connections retired her soon.i do not want that to happen.as i always say.the only thing i ever root for all horses and jockeys to do.have a safe trip and come back in 1 piece.

I have liked Julia from the very beginning. While that one race certainly did gain some fans, not every one judges a horse off of one race. Expectations aside, something was very clearly off. It may not have been a life threatening injury but there was a problem. The quest for a top filly continues, and CH just proved herself a real continder reguardless.

I really think most judge DOJ on the basis of one race (Gulfstream Oaks)her only win in her last five... rather than on her entire body of races... All of her losses will have excuses... She is like Hatches, POS, Midnight Lucky, Beholder, Unlimited Budget (all who I believe have more wins than she does)... They are all very good fillies...